Anarchism

Emma Goldman

Russia

February – March 1917: Russian Revolution. Strikes, bread riots, and mass protests against the government break out in Petrograd. Troops sent to subdue the crowd join in the protests. (see June 15, 1917)

Emma Goldman

In February 1934: Goldman visited relatives in Rochester, NY before arriving in NYC on February 2, where she was mobbed by reporters and photographers at Pennsylvania Station and the Hotel Astor. (see EG for expanded Goldman chronology)

February Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism

New York Shirtwaist Strike

In February 1910: the New York Shirtwaist Strike ended. The settlement improved workers’ wages, working conditions, and hours, but did not provide union recognition. A number of companies, including the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, refused to sign the agreement. But even so, the strike won a number of important gains. It encouraged workers in the industry to take action to improve their conditions, brought public attention to the sweatshop conditions. (next Feminism, see December 1910)

UNITE

In February 1995: the General Executive Boards of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union and the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America voted unanimously to merge. The new union, named the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE), was led by former ILGWU President Jay Mazur. In 1995, UNITE had a membership of about 250,000 in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. (Revolvy article) (next Feminism June 26, 1996)

February Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Marcus Garvey

February – August 1919: copies of The Negro World confiscated by authorities in various countries. It was banned by the governor of Belize, called seditious by the governor of Trinidad, and seized by the government of British Guiana. The acting governor of Jamaica ordered the postmaster to open and detain copies of the newspaper. (see MG for expanded Garvey chronology)

Southern Poverty Law Centre

In February 1987: with the support of Morris Dees and Joseph J. Levin at the Southern Poverty Law Centre (SPLC), Beulah Mae Donald, the mother of slain Michael Donald sued the United Klans of America. An all-white jury found the Klan responsible for the lynching of Michael Donald and ordered it to pay 7 million dollars. This resulted the Klan having to hand over all its assets including its national headquarters in Tuscaloosa. (BH, see February 10, 1989; Donald, see June 6, 1997)

Cold cases

February Peace Love Art Activism

February Music et al

Gil Evans

In February 1961: Gil Evans’s “Out of the Cool” released. Recorded at Van Gelder Studio. The Penguin Guide to Jazz selected this album as part of its suggested “Core Collection” calling it “Evans’ masterpiece under his own name and one of the best examples of jazz orchestration since the early Ellington bands.”

Bob Dylan

In February 1963: Columbia staff photographer Don Hunstein photographed Dylan and Suze Rotolo, together again after seven months’ separation, for the cover of The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan.

Hunstein recalled: “We went down to Dylan’s place on Fourth Street, just off Sixth Avenue, right in the heart of the Village. It was winter, dirty snow on the ground . . . Well, I can’t tell you why I did it, but I said, Just walk up and down the street. There wasn’t very much thought to it. It was late afternoon you can tell that the sun was low behind them. It must have been pretty uncomfortable, out there in the slush.” (see Apr 12; photo, see May 27)

Duke Ellington & John Coltrane

In February 1963: Duke Ellington (64 years old) and John Coltrane (37 years old) released Duke Ellington & John Coltrane. In a Sentimental Mood, written by Ellington in 1936 as an instrumental and later given lyrics was one of the songs done on the album The song had been theme song for at least nine radio shows; included in eight movie soundtracks; and two Broadway shows.

Jimi Hendrix

In February 1964: won first prize in an Apollo Theater amateur contest. (see March 1964)

LSD/Owsley Stanley

In February 1965: Owsley Bear Stanley first succeeded in synthesizing crystalline LSD. Earliest distribution was March 1965. (see Feb 21)

John Coltrane

In February 1965: John Coltrane released A Love Supreme album. Recorded at Van Gelder Studios.

People Get Ready

In February 1965: the Impressions released People Get Ready, a Curtis Mayfield composition. (see Mar 25)

Ken Kesey

In February 1966: newspapers begin reporting that Ken Kesey was not dead but in Mexico. (see Feb 5)

The Beatles & Monterey Pop

In February 1967, organizers asked the Beatles to contribute a drawing to the upcoming Monterey International Pop Festival The Beatles’ publicist Derek Taylor. Paul McCartney was on the Board of Governors for the Festival and he insisted that the relatively unknown Jimi Hendrix appear at the show.

The Beatles had stopped touring, so they did not want to appear at the festival. Instead, the Art Director for the Festival, Tom Wilkes, asked Derek Taylor if the Beatles could contribute something for the official festival program. The Beatles created an original illustration with felt marker, colored pencil and ink which said “Peace to Monterey” at the top.

The Beatles were busy working on their landmark album, Sgt. Pepper, at the time, so the drawing is “from Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band.” The message on the drawing continues: “Loving You, it happened in Monterey a long time ago.”

In classic Beatles humor, the drawing is signed “Sincerely, John, Paul, George and Harold.”

February Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

Cambodia

Operation Menu

In February, 1969: in spite of government restrictions, President Nixon authorized the covert Operation Menu, bombing of North Vietnamese and Vietcong bases within Cambodia. Over the following four years, U.S. forces will drop more than a half million tons of bombs on Cambodia. (Third World Traveler article) (see Feb 13)

February Peace Love Art Activism

Nuclear/Chemical News

ICAN

In February 2014: 146 States and more than a hundred civil society campaigners attended the Nayarit Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons. The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons [ICAN] told participants “the claim by some states that they continue to need these weapons to deter their adversaries has been exposed by the evidence presented at this conference…as a reckless and unsanctionable gamble with our future.” At the conclusion of the conference, Mexico called for the start of a diplomatic process to negotiate a legally binding instrument prohibiting nuclear weapons. (Nuclear, see Feb 18; ICAN, see Oct 26)

Open-Ended Working Group

February – August 2016: the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons [ICAN] campaigned actively at UN Open-Ended Working Group [OEWG] in Geneva, which recommended by a large majority of 107 participating States that the General Assembly authorize negotiations on “a legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons, leading towards their total elimination.” ICAN called the OEWG recommendation “a breakthrough in the seven-decade-long global struggle to rid the world of the worst weapons of mass destruction.” (Nuclear & ICAN, see Oct 27)

BLACK HISTORY

Slave Revolt: Newton, Long Island

February 28, 1708: seven white people were killed in Newton, Long Island. Following the rebellion, two black male slaves and an Indian slave were hanged, and a black woman was burned alive.

Slave Revolt: Virginia

In 1709 : a plot involving enslaved Indians as well as Africans spread through at least three Virginia counties—James City, Surry, and Isle of Wight. Of the four ringleaders, Scipio, Salvadore, Tom Shaw, and Peter, all but Peter were quickly jailed. (see April 20 (Easter), 1710)

Republican Party

February 28, 1854: about 50 slavery opponents met in Ripon, Wis., to call for creation of a new political group that became the Republican Party. (see Apr 29)

Detroit rebellion

February 28, 1943: the Detroit rebellion occurred. At 9 a.m Black renters, having signed leases and paid their rent, attempted to enter their homes. Many left the area fearing trouble.

Fighting began when two blacks in a car attempted to run through the picket line. Clashes between white and Black groups continued into the afternoon when 16 mounted police attempted to break up the fighting. Tear gas and shotgun shells were used. Officials announced an indefinite postponement of the move. Detroit newspapers, union leaders, and many other whites campaigned for the government to allow the Black workers to move into the homes.

In April, 1,100 city and state police officers and 1,600 Michigan National Guard troops were mobilized and sent to the area to allow the renters to enter homes. (see Apr 17)

Columbia Tennessee riots continue

February 28, 1946: (see Feb 26 & 27 for preceding story) Columbia, Tennessee policemen killed two black prisoners in custody. During an interrogation of James Johnson, William Gordon, and Napoleon Stewart, the police reported that two of the prisoners grabbed guns from white officers and began shooting. In defense, the police retaliated, killing two and wounding the third suspect.

A federal grand jury was convened to investigate the charges of misconduct by the white policemen, but the local all-white jury absolved the police of any wrong doing. Eventually, twenty-five blacks were tried in for the shootings of the white officers during the riot. Two of the accused were found guilty but were never retried due to lack of evidence. The one valid conviction came in a second trial at Columbia in November. Lloyd Kennedy was found guilty and served time in jail for shooting at a white highway patrolman. (BH, see Apr 18; RR, see Aug 10)

George Whitmore, Jr

February 28, 1972: The U.S. the Supreme Court refused to disturb Whitmore’s conviction for the attempted rape and assault of a practical nurse Elba Borrero almost eight years earlier. (next BH, see June 4; see Whitmore for expanded story)

Ben Chester White

February 28, 2003: on June 10, 1966 three Klansmen had approached Ben Chester White at his home near Natchez, Mississippi and asked for him help in finding a lost dog. White, a 67-year old sharecropper, was then driven to the Homochitto National Forest, where they shot White repeatedly, then dumped over him over a bridge into a creek bed below. Three men, Ernest , Claude Fuller, and James Lloyd Jones, had allegedly killed White in an attempt to lure Martin Luther King, Jr. to Natchez, Mississippi. Ernest Avants was tried in 1967 but acquitted.

In 2003, the New York Times described Chester this way: Ben Chester White used twists of wire to hold the soles on his shoes, patched his own clothes with scrap and said “yes, sir,” to white men, and when he made a little money, he wrapped the $1 bills in wax paper so they would not be ruined by his own sweat. He was not registered to vote, and had never fought against the segregation that was as much a fact of life for him as a hoe handle or cotton sack.

On this date, because Homochitto National Forest was federal property, the federal government could retry Ernest Avents for White’s murder. Allan Kornblum, the FBI agent who investigated the crime in 1967 testified that Mr. Avants said that his lawyer had told him that he would not be convicted in that case:

” ‘Because you can’t be convicted of killing a dead man.’ ”

” ‘Yeah, I shot that nigger,’ ” Mr. Kornblum said Mr. Avants told him. But Mr. Avants said that by the time he shot Mr. White, another man had shot Mr. White several times — investigators have said about 16 times — with an automatic carbine.

” ‘I blew his head off with a shotgun,’ ” Mr. Avants told him, Mr. Kornblum said. But by then, Mr. Avants told him that day, there was no life left in Mr. White.

”It’s been 37 years,” said Paige Fitzgerald, a trial lawyer with the United States Department of Justice. ”How do you remember?”

Mr. Kornblum answered, ”It’s one of those singular events in a person’s life…It’s burned in my memory,”

At that time, Agent Kornblum was legal adviser to the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and had a national security clearance that is higher than top secret. (see Mar 1)

George Whitmore, Jr

February 28, 2014: from an article in The Paris Review by Sabine Heinlein. I mailed a copy of my book Among Murderers, about the struggles three men faced when they returned to the world after several decades behind bars, to Richard Robles.

Robles wrote back:

Remorse is a tough subject. It’s complicated by the human desire to avoid pain and punishment, which is actually stronger, I think. It includes feelings of shame and guilt. Then there’s the drive to rehabilitate oneself and change. It is complex and confusing. One has to take an honest look at himself and get rid of that “bullshit ego.”

He added:

I found it [the book] very honest and real. I think it will be an eye opener for those who have the misconception that parole is freedom. I’d like to see it as mandatory reading for all first offenders because they often think “parole is freedom” and are quickly, very negatively struck with profound disappointment when reality smacks or kicks them in the face.

Along these lines I would have liked to see more about the unrealistic expectations prisoners fantasize about in prison—and how fantasies inhibit reform/rehabilitation efforts. I think you tried to portray that but I’m not certain the average reader could get it. You portray a prisoner as saying “Expect the unexpected.” I’d rephrase that to “Expect to be disappointed in every dream you conjure in prison.” (next BH, see Mar 21; see Whitmore for expanded story)

February 28 Peace Love Art Activism

Native Americans

February 28, 1877: the US Congress ratified the Manypenny Agreement with the Lakota Sioux, under which the United States took control of 900,000 acres of the Black Hills.

The Lakota argue to this day that the Agreement was illegal, was obtained by coercion associated with starvation, and that the Black Hills should be returned to them. (see May 5)

February 28 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

February 28, 1898: Holden v. Hardy, the Supreme Court of the United States upheld a Utah state law limiting the number of work hours for miners and smelters as a legitimate exercise of the police power. The majority held that such a law was legitimate, provided that there was indeed a rational basis, supported by facts, for the legislature to believe particular work conditions were dangerous. The court was quick to distinguish this case from other cases of the era which imposed universal maximum hour rules, which it held unconstitutional under the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment. (law dot jrank article) (see April 29, 1899)

February 28 Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism

International Women’s Day

February 28, 1908: the first International Women’s Day observed. In NYC, about 15,000 women marched demanding shorter hours, better pay, and the right to vote. (see July 21)

Violence Against Women Act

February 28, 2013: after the House plan endorsed by conservatives was defeated, the House or Representatives gave final approval to a renewal of the Violence Against Women Act, sending a bipartisan Senate measure to President Obama. (DoJ article) (see March 13)

February 28 Peace Love Art Activism

Nuclear/Chemical News

Hitlar’s plant

February 28, 1943: nine Norwegian saboteurs successfully blew up Hitler’s heavy water plant, a critical part of his nuclear program. [NYT story] (see April 17, 1945)

Trump/Jung-Un

February 28, 2019: President Trump and Kim Jong-un, North Korea’s leader, abruptly ended their second summit meeting when negotiations collapsed after the two sides failed to agree on even the first steps on nuclear disarmament, a peace declaration or reducing sanctions on the North.

The premature end to the negotiations meant the diplomacy between the United States and North Korea that has gone on for most of a year remains stalled, even as experts say North Korea continues to produce fissile material to make nuclear warheads.

February 28 Peace Love Art Activism

Technological Milestone

February 28, 1953: Cambridge University scientists James D. Watson and Frances H.C. Crick announced that they had determined the double-helix structure of DNA, the molecule containing human genes. (see March 26)

February 28 Peace Love Art Activism

February 28 Music et al

The Beatles

February 28, 1964: despite the arrival of “Beatlemania” Time magazine featured musician Thelonious Monk on its cover reflecting the continued importance and popularity of jazz in the US. (see Mar 21)

The Road to Bethel

February 28, 1969: Joel Rosenman, John Roberts, and Michael Lang signed the contract creating Woodstock Ventures and its plan for 1) a recording studio in Woodstock, NY and 2) a festival in Saugerties, NY. Artie Kornfeld could not sign the contract because he was still under contract with with Capital. Michael Lang agreed to hold Kornfeld’s share until the Capitol contract expired. (see Chronology for expanded story)

February 28 Peace Love Art Activism

Watergate Scandal

February 28, 1973: confirmation hearings begin for confirming L. Patrick Gray as permanent Director of the FBI. During these hearings, Gray revealed that he had complied with an order from John Dean to provide daily updates on the Watergate investigation, and also that Dean had “probably lied” to FBI investigators.(see Watergate for expanded story)

February 28 Peace Love Art Activism

Irish Troubles

February 28, 1985: the Provisional Irish Republican Army carried out a mortar attack on the Royal Ulster Constabulary police station at Newry, killing 9 officers in the highest loss of life for the RUC on a single day. (see Troubles for expanded chronology)

February 28 Peace Love Art Activism

The Cold War & Nuclear/Chemical Weapons News

February 28, 1987: in a surprising announcement, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev indicated that the USSR was ready to sign “without delay” a treaty designed to eliminate U.S. and Soviet medium-range nuclear missiles from Europe. (CW, see June 12; NN, see Nov 24)

February 28 Peace Love Art Activism

Dissolution of Yugoslavia

February 28, 1994, US F-16s shot down 4 Serbian J-21s over Bosnia and Herzegovina for violation of the Operation Deny Flight and its no-fly zone. (see Aug 4)

February 28 Peace Love Art Activism

Pledge of Allegiance

February 28, 2003: the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled that the addition of “under God” to the The Pledge of Allegiance was unconstitutional, refused to reconsider its ruling, saying it would be wrong to allow public outrage to influence its decisions. (NYT article) (see Pledge for expanded chronology)

February 28 Peace Love Art Activism

Iraq War II

February 28, 2006: The Washington Times reported that the Bush administration never drew up a comprehensive plan for rebuilding Iraq after the March 2003 invasion. (see Mar 19)

February 28 Peace Love Art Activism

Crime and Punishment

Private prison contracts

February 28, 2017: in a one-paragraph memo, Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinded the previous directive to the Bureau of Prisons to either reduce or decline to renew private-prison contracts as they came due. “The memorandum changed long-standing policy and practice, and impaired the Bureau’s ability to meet the future needs of the federal correctional system,” Sessions wrote. “Therefore, I direct the Bureau to return to its previous approach.” (see May 11)

Terry Lee Morris v Texas

During the trial of Morris (for soliciting explicit photographs from a 15-year-old girl) Judge George Gallagher ordered that a deputy shock Morris, who was wearing a shock belt, three times. Morris had been found guilty and sentenced to 60 years in prision.

Rodriquez wrote/quoted in her opinion, ” “The flagrant disregard in the courtroom of elementary standards of proper conduct should not and cannot be tolerated.” Illinois v. Allen…(1970). When challenging defendants breach decorum and threaten to tarnish proceedings with bad behavior, we afford trial judges “sufficient discretion to meet the circumstances of each case.” Id. But discretion has its limits (see Mar 14)

BLACK HISTORY

Hattie McDaniel

February 29, 1940: the daughter of slaves, African-American actress Hattie McDaniel won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Mammy in the classic film Gone With the Wind. She was the first African-American to win an Oscar. Her acceptance speech acknowledged the racial significance of her winning the Oscar. At the awards ceremony at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, however, she was forced to sit in the back of the room at a separate table from the white attendees. (Hollywood Reporter article) (see Apr 7)

Autherine Lucy

February 29, 1956: Autherine Lucy and her attorneys had filed suit against the University to have her suspension overturned. On this date US District Judge W. Hobart Grooms ordered her re-admittance, but school trustees permanently expelled her for “false, defamatory, impertinent and scandalous charges” against school officials. (BH, see March; U of A, see January 18, 1957)

Brown v Board of Education

February 29, 1956: the Mississippi legislature unanimously adopted an “interposition” resolution that declared “invalid” the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education, which ruled racially segregated schools unconstitutional. After the resolution was passed, members of the House of Representatives stood and sang Dixie. Interposition is a legal theory that was advanced in southern states before the Civil War, holding that states would “interpose” their authority between themselves and the federal government. A related theory was “nullification,” which held that states could nullify federal laws and court decisions.

In his famous 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech, Rev. Martin Luther King referred to segregationists with their “lips dripping with nullification and interposition.” By the time Mississippi passed its resolution, similar resolutions had been passed in Georgia, Alabama, Virginia, and South Carolina. The doctrines of nullification and interposition, however, had little effect on the course of the civil rights movement. (BH, see March; Nullification, see September 12, 1958)

Alabama Governor John Patterson

February 29, 1960: Alabama Governor John Patterson held a news conference to condemn the sit-in by the six Alabama State College students. Patterson, who was also chairman of the State Board of Education, threatened to terminate Alabama State College’s funding unless it expelled the student organizers and warned that “someone [was] likely to be killed” if the protests continued. (next BH, see Mar 29; see GR for expanded chronology)

Kerner Report

February 29, 1968: The Report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders or Kerner Report was released. Its finding was that the riots resulted from black frustration at lack of economic opportunity. The report’s most infamous passage warned, “Our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white—-separate and unequal.” [PDF of report (BH, see Mar 8; RR, see Apr 9)

February 29 Peace Love Art Activism

February 29, 2012: The New York City Council introduced a package of police reform bills to bring greater accountability to the NYPD, in particular the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk practices. (ACLU site article) (see March 22)

February 29 Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism

February 29, 2012: CANBERRA, Australia — a Senate inquiry called for the Australian government to apologize and offer compensation to thousands of unwed mothers who were forced to give up their babies for adoption in the late 20th century.

Unwed mothers were pressured, deceived and threatened into giving up their babies from World War II until the early 1970s so they could be adopted by married couples, which was perceived to be in the children’s best interests, the Senate committee report found. “If it wasn’t illegal, it was unethical,” committee chairwoman Sen. Rachel Siewert said.

February 29 Peace Love Art Activism

TERRORISM

February 29, 2012: American-born Majid Khan, pleaded guilty in a deal requiring him to testify against Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the architect of the September 11 (2011) attacks, and other accused terrorists. [NYT article] (see November 21, 2013)